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Total originals are a rare thing. Yet across five decades, guitarist Vini Reilly and his band have created their own, instantly recognisable style of music: intricate but unflashy, immediate yet timeless, melancholic but ecstatic. Primarily instrumental, they have, over their long career, produced indie chamber music, a modern classical suite, sampledelia, dance music and flamenco-infused pop, while always sounding unmistakably, indelibly, themselves. Now, 46 years after their debut, they have a new album, Renascent, to crest that incredible catalogue. On arrival in 1980, the band had no obvious precursors. Since the turn of the century, however, Durutti have seen an increasing number of successors, with acts as diverse as Frank Ocean, The Avalanches, Yung Lean, and Blood Orange demonstrating their influence. That renaissance has revved up in the 2020s, with Durutti appearing on the soundtracks of The Bear and Grand Theft Auto, and being hymned by Harry Styles. With the new album’s title meaning “being reborn, reviving, springing up afresh”, Renascent represents a renaissance not just in the band’s popularity but in their artistry. Musically, the album channels both ‘Time Present and Time Past’, moving forwards while also looking backwards. Appositely then, the artwork is designed by original Factory collaborators 8vo, who reunited especially for this album. Durutti Column are still pursuing the momentum of the moment 46 years after their inception: they are Renascent.
